Sea Point residents celebrate victory as development appeal is upheld

Residents of the Atlantic Seaboard have successfully had their appeal against the development of a block of flats in Sea Point upheld.

The appeal concerned properties located at 29 and 31 St Johns Road, where buildings as old as sixty years once stood.

"I wish to advise that the appeal was upheld as per the attached decision dated November 18 and  that the application has been refused, and the process has therefore now been concluded," the final appeal notification letter by Development Management stated, which was received on December 12.

Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, who serves as the final appeal authority under the Municipal Planning By-Law, upheld the residents' appeal, setting aside the decision previously made by the Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT).

The property is under development by well-known property developers who have yet to respond to queries by the Cape Argus on the decision.

Residents had been appealing against the demolition and development process for months, with their concerns previously highlighted by the Cape Argus in July.

Luthando Tyhalibongo, the City's Spokesperson, confirmed: "The Mayor is the final appeal authority in terms of the City's Municipal Planning By-law. Due process was followed in terms of the by-law, and in the end the final determination to uphold the appeal was made.

"The City has no further comment."

Lindsay Rogers, representing the ratepayers and residents, expressed relief: "We finally received formal notification from the City that our appeal against the proposed redevelopment for a block of flats at 29 & 31 St. Johns Rd. has been upheld.

"The original approval decision by the Municipal Planning Tribunal has been set aside and the application, as a whole, has been refused."

Rogers had previously explained that two historic Sea Point homes, one heritage-graded, were slated for demolition and replacement by a five-storey block of flats.

According to official communication regarding the development, it said: "The appeal was upheld as per the attached decision dated November 18 and the application has been refused, and the process has now been concluded."

Rogers claimed the developers had attempted to legitimise an illegal building plan "to construct a huge apartment block of five storeys in the midst of our historic neighbourhood."

He described a strategy whereby the planning department first approved plans without public consultation for two separate blocks of flats, one on each individual property, prior to publicising their application for a single, larger block of 9 luxury apartments through consolidation.

"By means of such a manoeuvre, all our objections to the size, suitability and impact of the construction were summarily ignored - as the application (approved by the MPT on 1 April) was for consolidation of the two approved separate blocks only," she said.

Rogers added that their legal action appealing the approval decision was effectively disregarded by the Planning Appeal Authority (PAAP), and their request for a live hearing was denied on the grounds that the application concerned only the consolidation of the two properties and not the development as proposed.

"Thereafter, the PAAP forwarded its recommendation to the Executive Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis, in his capacity as the final Appeal Authority – evidently, to disregard our appeal and to uphold the development's approval," he explained.

"Due process was followed for the appeal to go before the Mayor, where the legal issues we'd cited finally received proper consideration and sound adjudication by an evidently competent body.

"The mayor's decision to uphold the appeal was based primarily on the contravention of set-back criteria for building lines.

"The proposed structure would have been just 1.68m from the shared common boundary at the rear of the site for the full 15m height of the building, instead of the required 4.5m setback.

"The mayor's report cited several factors for upholding the appeal, including inappropriate massing, incompatibility with the surrounding urban form, negative impact on residents in terms of light deprivation and privacy, denigration of property values, and contravention of common building line requirements.

While celebrating this victory, Rogers added:  "This good news is no small achievement and has potentially huge implications for similar redevelopment applications. It further demonstrates what can be done when a community comes together."

Earlier the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayco Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews explained the heritage portion: “Although the existing buildings were over 60 years old, Heritage Western Cape granted a permit for their complete demolition in May 2023. The Land Use Management (LUM) application was subsequently approved by the Municipal Planning Tribunal (MPT) on April 1,” he explained.

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